Joshu Sasaki Collection

The Joshu Sasaki Collection

Joshu Sasaki, of Rinzai-ji, has been the subject of numerous public complaints of ethical misconduct throughout his teaching career in the United States. This collection of articles deal with that topic.

January, 2013

There is quite a bit of news to report on this morning for everyone interested in the story of Rinzai-ji and the allegations of sexual misconduct that have emerged against Joshu Sasaki. First, I’d like to point everyone to the report released by the independent Witness Council for the Rinzai-ji Community that was released to the Sasaki Archive very early ...

February, 2013

Photo of Mt. Baldy Zen Center’s zendo by LinSu via a CC-BY license. Major news organizations have recently begun picking up the story of Joshu Sasaki, the Japanese-born Rinzai Zen teacher accused of fondling and groping many of the female students who came to him for Zen instruction for more than forty years. Since first running the original piece by Eshu Martin ...

Back in the early 1990s, at a meeting of the American Zen Teachers’ Association, I first heard that a Zen teacher, in this case Dennis Gempo Merzel, had initiated sexual contact with female students during formal sanzen, and in the sanzen room. I can still remember the shock, followed by a sick and sinking feeling in my heart and solar ...

In Memory of Chizuko Karen Joy Tasaka (1951-2010) To Joshu Sasaki Roshi: Roshi You Are a Sexual Abuser Because Chizuko Karen Joy Tasaka did not live to see the Rinzai-ji community acknowledge the sexual abuse she described in her poetry, I felt it was especially important to give voice to her poem of vivid accusations and her cry of pain ...

April, 2013

According to a new email document added to the Sasaki Archive, Kyozan Joshu Sasaki will be stepping down as Abbot of Rinzai-ji on July 21, 2013. He has designated Eshin John Godfrey of the Zen centre of Vancouver in Canada to step in as Abbot designate. Additionally, Gento Steve Krieger and Ginsei Ginger Calloway have also both been named as Vice-Abbot designates. ...

I have completed my translation of a second article regarding the arrest and prosecution of Rev. Sasaki in the so-called Zuiganji Affair. However, I have specifically asked Rev. Malone of the Sasaki Archives to hold off posting the same at that website until we can request clarification on the content from Rev. Sasaki and/or his Heirs, should they have anything ...

May, 2013

With a sad heart, I have posted at the following link translations regarding a financial scandal many years ago in Japan involving embezzlement of government and temple funds, and the resulting prosecution, conviction and imprisonment by the Japanese authorities of the REV. JOSHU SASAKI. www.zuiganji-affair.com On that page, I outline my reasons for agreeing to undertake the translations in a matter ...

January, 2014

More laundry today, I’m afraid. Last week, I started reaching out to some folks in Joshu Sasaki’s lineage to confirm some reports I’d been receiving about ongoing issues within the organization. These reports, in part, suggested that Joshu Sasaki has recently declared himself “Supreme Abbot” of the organization and is effectively still running Rinzai-ji. Seiju Bob Mammosser Osho — of the ...

Recently there have been some articles about Rinzai-ji and Joshu Sasaki Roshi posted here on Sweeping Zen, and some new documents that have been leaked and posted to sasakiarchive.com, that are cause for significant concern with regards to what is happening (and not happening) within the Rinzai-ji organization, as well as in the broader Western Zen sangha. Since writing “Everybody ...

February, 2014

Puget Sound Zen Center in Vashon, Washington, led by Gakudo Koshin Christopher Cain, Osho, has recently announced its disaffiliation with Rinzai-ji, Inc., citing a variety of concerns and reasons for the departure; among their concerns is Joshu Sasaki‘s continued leadership of Rinzai-ji. You can download a copy of their announcement and letter here from the Sasaki Archive. Here is the ...

July, 2014

Joshu Sasaki Roshi, the Japanese-born Rinzai Zen teacher and founder of Rinzai-ji, died on Sunday at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California at 107 years old. He was musician Leonard Cohen’s teacher. Sasaki Roshi came to America in 1962 and in 1963 the Rinzai Zen Dojo Association was created, later becoming Rinzai-ji and opening as Cimarron Zen Center in Los Angeles. In 1970 Mount Baldy ...

September, 2014

The Shimano Archive has just posted a correspondence from Eido Shimano to his current sangha discussing the legacy of the late Joshu Sasaki and his own ongoing litigation against Zen Studies Society (ZSS) — papers filed in January of 2013. The letter, by Eido Shimano as dictated to his students Zensho Martin Hara and Hoen Sandra Jean-Pierre, tells of his recent travels ...

July, 2015

Dear Esteemed Sangha and Community, I write this letter particularly to those women with whom I share a past, practicing with the late Joshu Sasaki Roshi, and to others in the Sangha whose confidence I feel I have betrayed. I offer this as my personal and heart-felt apology to you. I failed you, and myself, out of blind devotion to ...

September, 2015

Editors Note: This was intended as an earlier post but I was away on retreat at the time. My apologies. Dear Bodhi Sangha, It is time—long past time—to break the silence around the wrong and harmful conduct of Joshu Sasaki Roshi. We, the Board of Trustees, write now to offer the heartfelt apology of the Bodhi Manda Zen Center. This ...

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